Online Media Buying Resource Thread

[100k]

Let's share some tips and tricks,

dos and don'ts, hacks, links ....

related to online Media Buying.

 

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[100k]

Here is a very useful and no fluff guide I found on BHW.

Some guidelines to making banners with high CTR

1. Banner size: The best performing banner ad dimension is unstandard one (bigger=better), for standar banners the best is 728x90px or 300x250px - above the fold.

2. File size: if your file size will be too big your banner will need few seconds to load, in this time the visitor may scroll the site and never get to see your banner – in this case smaller is better

3. Text: Try to put at least one benefit of your product. Tell people why your product will make their life better.

4. Pictures: have to be a high quality.

5. Call to action: is very important. You have to test what would be the best call to action for product/service you advertise. Even a little change of text can increase your CTR. Think about what would you click on? You have to write something that gives a visitor urges to do something now. Good call to action definitely improves the effectiveness of a banner.

6. Colors: The best colors to use: yellow, green or red; yellow and black, red and black.

7. Design:
- make a banner with 1px red or blue border around the white banner – this is very popular to use on small banners;
- make a banner with background color like the color of the site - fill the banner with background color; put only colorful elements on banner and text – so banner looks like a part of a website;
- try to use familiar elements on banner, elements of the niche you are advertising; for example if you are advertising health product (pills) put a health or pharmacy cross – so when people will scan the website they will notice those elements first and this will definitely increase your clicks;
- try to make small animation; animated banner can attract the visitor more then static banners do;
- put some »fake« elements on your banner; fake text, email, sumbit, selection boxes,… For example if you colect emails and you put email box on a banner people will think they're clicking to insert email. Important: You have to make banner look like your site because you don´t want to confuse them;
- try to use countdown timer;

8. Don't make fancy flash banners. Those banners are for branding and definitely not for converting cliks. This banners are the reason for ad blindness.

9. Don't make shity looking banners because they look like scam – even if you have high CTR the conversions are bad so it's not worth it.

10. If you can buy banner place directly from a website owner – try to offer them more money for more space to use unstandard banners. Almost every website have an option to change banner place to a bigger one (728x300px, … ). Those banners definitely look like a part of a website so your banner will be more noticeable = more clicks = high CTR = more conversion

11. Every website is different. What converts on one site doesn´t mean it´s going to perform well on other.

12. Spy on your competiton – what are they doing?

13. Making just a few small changes can increase your CTR as much as 200 to 300%.


Remember that the banner with small CTR doesn't mean it's a bad one. High CTR doesn't mean high conversions. The most important thing is to meauser conversions from each banner ad. The banner with small CTR can make you more money (more conversions) than banners with high – because a lot of people click on banners just because of their curiosity.


Finnaly test, test, test and you will definitely get the best performing banner ad

 

[100k]

Here is another useful article - this one is from WF

Hey Warriors,

Media buys, this is how the pros drive traffic to their CPA offers. Yes, it's true, media buys is probably the most powerful traffic generation model for CPA marketers. I myself think that this can be not the best model for a beginner to start with, but it does work and sooner or later all the successful CPA marketers end up using media buys.

I've noticed that in the last few months more and more people are interested in using this model besides (or instead) of PPC and PPV. So, I decided to create a quick guide to help people enter the media buying world without spending too much money or dealing with complicated systems. I hope it helps you create your first campaigns and start profiting in the next few days.


1. GET PREPARED

Before you even start building your campaigns you need to have a basic structure. If you don't get organized with the basics first you will have almost no chances of succeeding.

Take care of the things below and just then start working on the campaigns.


CPA networks

Join good, trustworthy CPA companies. You don't have to get started with the biggest ones if you're new to this business (it may be tough to get your accounts approved), but make sure that you join only companies with a solid reputation. Never join a network and start sending traffic without making a good research first.

Here is a site that will help you find good companies that are willing to work with new affiliates:

Reviews of CPA Networks, Affiliate Programs and Ad Networks - Affpaying

If you don't know how to apply to the networks, take a look on this quick guide:

Ultimate CPA Network Acceptance Report - EVERYTHING You Need To Know About CPA Acceptance


Budget

You do need more money to get started with media buys than with PPC or other advertising models. Even if you start with platforms and avoid the direct deals, you will still need to have some money to invest on testing.

It can be possible to get something going with $500, but it would be great if you had at least $1,000, maybe more to get your foot wet with this model.

So, don't get started with this system if you don't have some money to invest. In this business, money makes money, so find a way to make your budget before you start playing this game.


Designer

You will have to create banners and maybe landing pages to run your campaigns. If you can do it efficiently (efficiently!!!) by yourself, great. If you can't, be prepared to hire a professional designer. The "Warriors for hire" section is great, but you can also use other freelance sites such as eLance.

Avoid using Fiverr, most people there are not as good as the ones on this forum or on the freelance sites. Remember: you get what you pay for.


Solid information / courses

If you don't know how to play poker, don't try to make money playing poker. You shouldn't spend thousands of dollars buying tons of courses, but buying 1 or 2 good courses certainly won't hurt.

It's important that you know how use platforms, choose your offers, create your ads, etc... This is a basic guide that will put you in the right path, but it would be great to have more advanced information before getting started.

Take a look on paid IM forums as well as 1-on-1 coaching programs. Those are usually the most effective programs/systems to learn CPA.


Tracking system

Many people don't really care about tracking when they are getting started with a new model. This can be a fatal mistake, so don't do it.

You can use P202, Bevo or even a custom script with subids. It doesn't matter as long as you track all the elements of your campaigns (placements, banners, landing pages, offers, etc) and know exactly what's going on.

Control your metrics and you may get profitable. Run random campaigns without controlling your numbers and you will fail.


2. FIND THE TRAFFIC

Some people prefer to research offers first and just then look for the traffic to promote them. It's not wrong, sometimes I do it and, IMO, this is probably the best way to go when using PPC. However, when it comes to media buys, it can be easier to find the traffic first and look for the offer later.

You can research placements, find the ones that seem to be good and just then find offers that are suitable for them.

If you want to get started the easiest way I highly recommend you to do this.


Platforms

There are many god media buying platforms. Here is a list with some of them:

BuySellAds
AdSonar
ZEDO
AdEngage
Pulse360
SiteScout
AdSide
AdBlade
Chitika
Qualibid
Clicksor
Traffic Junky (adult)

Take a look on the platforms, create accounts to see their placements and then fund your accounts with the platforms you consider the best to start buying advertising spaces.


Analyzing placements

If you want to be successful with media buys it's essential for you to learn how to analyze the placements properly so that you can avoid the ones that have little chances of becoming successful without spending money on testing them.

Here are some basic rules you must follow:

* Prefer ad spaces that are close to the content;

* Avoid ad spaces that are too small;

* Avoid ad spaces that have other ad spaces too close;

* Buy only ad spaces that are above the fold;

* Avoid buying expensive ad spaces when testing a new campaign.


Getting demographics

You need to know who is the audience you'll be reaching with your campaign. So, analyze very well the demographics of the visitors of the site you will be placing your ads on.

Tools like Alexa, Quantcast, Compete and Google AdPlanner may help you with this task.


3. THINK ABOUT DEMOGRAPHICS, NOT NICHES

Most of the times we think only about niches. What niche is the best for media buys? How to find offers in the same niche of the site I'll be placing my ads on?

This is a mistake.

Don't think only about niches, think more about demographics when doing media buys.

Get the demographics of your audience using the tools I mentioned above and then try to come up with ideas to show something interesting to that audience. Try to figure out what would grab their attention, what would be nice for them.

If you're placing ads on a forum about parenting, maybe your audience will be moms with young children. In this case, you don't have to promote only offers related to parenting, maybe those moms would be interested in working from home to make some extra cash without leaving their kids with someone else. Babies can be very expensive, so this can be something interesting for the new moms.

Be smart, think out of the box and come up with nice ideas for niches, angles and approaches. It's marketing, so be creative and try to engage people with your campaigns.


Angles

Do you know what's an angle? It's simply the way you approach your visitors.

For example, let's say you will promote a dating offer. You could have "geeks" as your angle. Then, you would target geeks and say something like "tired of playing online games? Try something more interesting!", and would show them the image of a hot girl. Or you could use loneliness as your angle and target mature women. You could say things like "don't end up alone, find someone before it's too late". There are many different approaches you can use to promote an offer, so be creative and look for interesting ways to grab people's attention and convince them to complete your offer.


Researching offers

After you find the traffic (find an interesting placement to advertise on), go to your CPA networks research offers. Don't focus only on the network EPC as most people do. Each campaign is different and other people's numbers may mean nothing to you.

Talk to your affiliate managers, talk to other affiliates and try to look for offers that seem to be suitable for your placement, always considering demographics and angles instead of just niches.


4. BANNERS & LANDING PAGES

After finding the right placement, offer and angle, you need the tools that will allow you to launch the campaign. Landing pages won't be always necessary, but you will always need banners.

If you have good designing skills it's great, but if you don't you better outsource this task. But even for those who will outsource the banners and landing pages it's very important to know how to create effective graphics so that they'll be able to pass the right instructions to the designer. Remember that designers are designers and marketers are marketers!


Creating effective banners

There are a few simple rules you should follow when creating your banners:

* The banner needs to contrast with the site. If the site is blue, don't create a blue banner, try to use more yellow or red to contrast with the site.

* Ugly banners are better. Don't be too professional, bad looking banners can be more eye catching and have a better performance. Most banners are well designed, so when people see a banner that's not very professional it tends to grab their attention.

* Keep it simple. Don't use too much content, just use few words, a nice image and that's it. A strong headline with a strong call-to-action and a good image can do wonders. If you use too much text or too many images your banner can become confusing and people won't take the time to understand it, they'll just ignore it.

Creating effective landing pages

Keep it simple. This is the golden rule for landing pages.

Don't use too many graphics. Your page needs to look good (professional), but it shouldn't have too many elements. Your page needs to pass a message to the user and it needs to be done fast. If you have many elements you may distract the user and do not pass the right message.

The main elements that you need to have are:

* Headline - Tell people what is in it for them, why they should spend their time on your site. Do it with 2 lines and just few words. Less can be more.

* Bullets – Use short bullets to expose the main benefits of your offer. People are more likely to read bullets than blocks of text.

* Call-to-action – Tell people what to do, use a strong call-to-action to make them leave their comfort zone and go to the offer’s page.

* Image - Use a nice image to give a better looking to your page. The pages tend to look bad when they have only text.


Outsourcing

As I said before, you can use the “Warriors for hire” section of this forum as well as freelancer sites. However, keep in mind that designers are designers, they can create good looking pages, but they don’t know how to create pages that convert. So, tell them exactly what to do.

Also, I recommend you not to outsource the content. Again, writers are writers, not marketers. If you’re not a native english speaker you may hire a writer to review your content and fix eventual grammatical errors or improve the choice of words, but don’t hire someone to create the whole thing for you.


5. TESTING, TRACKING & OPTIMIZING

This is a critical part and there are a few things that you need to keep in mind here:

* You won’t be successful right from the beginning. You will start losing money and you will have to improve (optimize) your campaign to turn a positive ROI.

* You must control your numbers. There is a lot of math involved in the process of creating profitable campaigns. You need to control your metrics to spot problems and fix them. You will have many elements to test and you have to find your winners in order to be successful.

There are many metrics involve din creating media buying campaigns, but below are the main ones. Track them and optimize them and you will have great chances of succeeding.


CTR – Click Through Rate

What is it?
The CTR is the percentage of people who see your ad clicks on it. For example, if 1,000 see your ad and 20 click on it, your CTR will be 2%.

Formula
CTR = click * 100 / impressions

When doing media buys you will hardly pay per click, you almost always pay per impressions (CPM – cost per mile) or pay per time of exposure ($X for X days). In both cases, you should try to get as many clicks as possible, since it wouldn’t increase your costs.

The CTR is the metric that will allow you to analyze the performance of your ads (banners and ad spaces) and improve them to generate more traffic.

There is also the CTR of the landing page, which is the percentage of people who reach your page and then go to the offer’s page. If this CTR is low you must improve your landing page, because you’re wasting traffic.


eCPC – Estimated Cost Per Click

What is it?
It’s the average cost of each visitor who comes to your site.

Formula
eCPC = cost / visitors

As I said before, most of the times you’ll be working with CPM and time of exposure, so you won’t be paying per click. However, it’s good to know the actual cost of your traffic, so you can estimate a CPC and know exactly how much you’re paying for your traffic. The lower the eCPC the better.


EPC / CR – Earnings Per Click / Conversion Rate

What is it?
The EPC is the average earnings for each visitor who goes to the offer’s page. The CR is the percentage of people who reaches the offer’s page and convert.

Formula
EPC = earnings / clicks to the offer
CR = conversions * 100 / clicks to the offer

The EPC and the CR will help you test offers and determine which one is the most profitable offer for your campaign. Controlling these metrics is very important to know how much money you’re making with your campaign.


ROI – Return on Investment

What is it?
It’s the percentage of money that you’re earning or losing according to your investment.

Formula
ROI = (earnings – expenses) * 100 / expenses

The ROI is basically what tell you if you’re making money or losing money. You need a good and solid ROI to be able to run a campaign and make decent profits.

Always watch your ROI, because this is the only way to know when a campaign becomes profitable or loses performance.


That’s it, guys. I hope you enjoyed this quick guide.

If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to post them below.


William

Links from the thread;

http://www.affpaying.com/

http://www.warriorforum.com/ad-netw...thing-you-need-know-about-cpa-acceptance.html

 

[1PercentStreet]

Hey

I've been in the affiliate marketing space for about 5 years. Most of all my experience in paid traffic.

First advice I can give is, disregard 99% of info you get from affpaying/warriorforum. Everything there is trying to just rehash old stuff.

Learn the basics from those sites and others related to them. You'll only learn the most crucial information getting data. That means spending money to see what works and what doesn't.


Also, on your point regarding "9. Don't make shity looking banners because they look like scam – even if you have high CTR the conversions are bad so it's not worth it."

My best ads convert from making them in MSpaint. Amateur works. Ugly works. Look at craigslist.
NEVER assume in media buying. The data will always doing the talking. What you think works might not, what you think will not work might.

 

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[100k]

Thanks for the input!

I have a feeling Ugly banners that look like Text work well too. I will give them a try

I am just getting started with media buying (focusing on display/banners). I won't be sharing all the steps that I am taking or the data I get, but I will share THE BEST resources I find on the subject.

I have a 450mb zip file I want to upload... full of juice stuff!

 

[100k]

Here you go guys....

This is the MOTHER of Media Buying Video Series.....

Everything you want and need to know before jumping into Media buying is covered in this amazing collection of videos.

Media Buying ZIP - Free Download - Uploading.com

 

[RockBottom]

Link is gone bro. Any chance of you reupping this?Thanks.

Here you go guys....

This is the MOTHER of Media Buying Video Series.....

Everything you want and need to know before jumping into Media buying is covered in this amazing collection of videos.

Media Buying ZIP - Free Download - Uploading.com

 

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[100k]

Link is gone bro. Any chance of you reupping this?Thanks.

I have just checked... the link is still live.

Media Buying ZIP - Free Download - Uploading.com

 

[100k]

Here is a PDF full of links to squeeze pages, landing pages and splashpages.

Perfect for CPA, PPC, PPV & Media Buying!

Landing Pages.pdf

 

[jfub]

Awesome thread. I've had success with offline CPA methods in the past, and I've decided it's time to dive back in!

As far as media buys: I knew their was something being left out of the equation! All the rehashed material on BHW and WF I've downloaded in the past :nonod: ...

I'm finally above the IM fray. After years of BS lol.


If anyone has any requests on past products/information/methods, I'm sure I have it. If not, I can find it for you. Just let me know!

100k: Thanks for the info!

-Joe

 

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[100k]

Thanks Joe.

Good luck, Don't give up! Get back up on the horse!!!!


Here is a great LIVE case study on Media Buying

[Case Study]1000$ A Day Ultimate MEDIA BUYING

 

[jfub]

Awesome case study!

Happy holidays.

-Joe

 

[jfub]

Anybody have updates on media buying pursuits to share ?

 

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[WorkWithMorgan]

there's some good sources listed in this thread.

It all comes down to testing and tracking.

 

[100k]

Anybody have updates on media buying pursuits to share ?

Hey, I dunno if you know about Luke, one of the Affiliate Managers at Peerfly, he shares detailed media buy case studies from time to time!

Here is his website: PeerFly Affiliate Manager

 

[khsrr]

Getting started on my first media buy campaign soon. If there is anyone else who is currently doing this or interested we could form a group to help each other out.

 

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[RobynM]

Here is a great LIVE case study on Media Buying

[Case Study]1000$ A Day Ultimate MEDIA BUYING

@100k, did you happen to save the case study info? Just checking because the thread is no longer available and I would've liked to have looked over it.

thanks

 

[100k]

@100k, did you happen to save the case study info? Just checking because the thread is no longer available and I would've liked to have looked over it.

thanks

Hi, I did not save the case study.

Not sure why it got deleted, maybe it had too many h8rs in it.

Here is another source for media buy, you can find some live case studies if you go through the threads.

Media Buying

 

[HD_edacity]

First off i got to say 100k your resources are invaluable, pretty much everything i have learn about buying media space has been through something you've or zen******* posted or linked too. So thank you .

One thing I don't completely understand are landing pages (specifically for media buying), if you get paid commission through someone clicking on a banner whats the point of the landing page? Is it to create an email list for later use? I know it can be used ellicit a call to action but won't the product site do that anyway.

p.s- I was singing up to sitescout and they asked for a company name, i don't have a company name so i just put in my name. Is this alright or should i go register a company with the province?

 

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[Eskil]

One thing I don't completely understand are landing pages (specifically for media buying), if you get paid commission through someone clicking on a banner whats the point of the landing page? Is it to create an email list for later use? I know it can be used ellicit a call to action but won't the product site do that anyway.

Landing pages can make a world of a difference, trust me. It gives you that extra chance to sell to the visitor and increase conversions drastically.

 

[100k]

First off i got to say 100k your resources are invaluable, pretty much everything i have learn about buying media space has been through something you've or zen******* posted or linked too. So thank you .

One thing I don't completely understand are landing pages (specifically for media buying), if you get paid commission through someone clicking on a banner whats the point of the landing page? Is it to create an email list for later use? I know it can be used ellicit a call to action but won't the product site do that anyway.

p.s- I was singing up to sitescout and they asked for a company name, i don't have a company name so i just put in my name. Is this alright or should i go register a company with the province?

Thanks buddy!

Landing pages give you a chance to warm the traffic up before they are "hit" with a hard sales copy. It also gives you the opportunity to edit things and test things to find out exactly your market wants (i.e you can change the title like it's posted here: https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/fastlane/44565-1-year-later-now-what-2.html#post260014 ).

 

[100k]

 

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[100k]

Another great case study!

The guy is aiming for $1k/day profit with media buy!

1k A DAY RAW Media Buying Case Study

 

[Carrots]

Awesome thread! Thanks for the knowledge 100k